Category Archives: Ancient Greek Scientists and inventors

Heron was from Alexandria and he was a mechanic and a geometer. He lived in Alexandria in the first century B.C. or the first century A.D.

He invented the aeropile. It was the first steam engine in history. It is said that he followed the theory of the atoms and the engineering drawings of Philon. As a basis for his works he used the ideas of Ctecibius.

Inventions and achievements

He invented a fountain that was working with compressed air.

He invented the pipettes (or syringe).

He invented a threading machine with wooden screws.

He invented a vending machine for water.

He invented a wind wheel

He invented the odometre. It was an individual construction which could be fitted in any chariot. It was made of a complex of gear wheels and drills that could transport the motion of the wheels. Then, they could convert it in length units.

He invented a force pump. It was widely used in the Roman world and one of its applications was in a fire engine.

Philo of Byzantium was one of the most important mathematicians and engineers of the Hellenistic period.

He was from Byzantium but he lived most of his life in Alexandria.

Constructions

Philo didn’t deal only with theory but he made constructions with which he could prove what he had in mind. His important constructions were the air pump, and the water pump, which worked with buckets.

Apart from these he made some items which worked with steam, like a horse drinking water, a girl pouring water and a siren for a lighthouse. With his last constructions he became the instigator to Heron of Alexandria.

Timosthenes of Rhodes (3rd century BC) was an ancient Greek author and admiral in Ptolemy II’s fleet.

Timosthenes described most of the known countries with a lot of precision and located the place of Mediterranean ports and cities.

Scientists and explorers of Antarctica have given his name to a mountain (Timosthenes Mount) in central Antarctica because Timosthenes of Rhodes wrote sailing directions and invented the symbols (wind rose) for 8 or 12 winds. Scientists later used these symbols to make the points of the compass.

Anaximander (610-546 BC) was the second of the scientists or philosophers who lived in Miletus, like Thales. According to historical documents, he was the best scholar in Astronomy and Geography.

Cosmogony – Cosmology – Astronomy

Anaximander explained the creation of the world beginning from the infinite (Apeiron). He considered that the stars are condensations of gases and fire which are created from swirling.

In Astronomy, Anaximander made sundials. According to Anaximander, the Earth, which is in the middle of the universe, is a sphere with width triple than its length and people live on its surface. Anaximander also formed a theory that life on Earth appeared because of the heat from the sun. The first creatures were like fish and they had shells. People appeared at the end of this stage.

Meteorology

Anaximander believed that the wind was moving air and the rain came from the Earth’s streams. The clap of thunder appears from air escaping from the clouds and when air crashes with clouds, a flash of lighting is created.

Infinity (Apeiron)

The centre of Anaximander’s philosophy was infinity (Apeiron), which has two explanations:

Strabo was an ancient Greek historian, geographer, and philosopher. He was the most famous geographer of the ancient times.

Strabo was born in 64 or 63 BC in Amasia in Pontos and he died when he was about 90 years old.

In his journeys he gathered the material which helped him in his writing for historical and geographical works. His biggest works are:

Historical Memos, and

Geographia

The Historical Memos are 47 books in papyrus. Most of them are lost. The Geographia are 17 books which have been saved. We can say that this work is the most extensive and qualitative map of the world of his time!

In the picture above you can see a crater on the moon that has been named after him!

Autolycus of Pitane (c. 350 BC – c. 290 BC) was a Greek astronomer, mathematician and geographer. Autolycus means self-lit, he who has his own light.

In geometry Autolycus studied about the characteristics of the movement of a body at its own projection.

Autolycus also studied the relationship between the rising and the setting of the celestial bodies and he wrote that every star that rises and sets, always rises and sets at the same point on the horizon.

In memory of Autolycus, one volcano at the north of the moon, at Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rain) has taken his name.

As part of our e-twinning project, I’d like to talk to you about one of the greatest ancient Greek doctors and anatomists, called Erasistratus.

Erasistratus was born in Ioulida of Kea, in Kos, in Chios, or in Samos. He lived in Alexandria for some time and he founded a school of anatomy there.

His achievements were many. He thought that the nerves moved a nervous spirit from the brain and he is credited with one of the first in-depth descriptions of the cerebrum and the cerebellum. He also examined the anatomy of the brain and he believed that we feel hungry because our stomach is empty.

Erasistratus was also sure that the spleen, the bile, and some other parts of the body were useless to animals. Some valves of the heart may have taken their name from him.

In conclusion, Erasistratus was a bright example of a person who tried to excel in anatomy and he achieved it! People like him should be role models for us!

Pedanius Dioscorides (40 – 90 AD) was a Greek doctor, pharmacologist, and botanist from Anazarbus of Cicilia. He was known for his five-volume work with the biggest influence on pharmacology until 1600 AD.

There are a lot of copies of his work even from the fifth century. He was the greatest pharmacologist of ancient times. His scientific contribution is as great as that of Theophrastos in botany. His manuscripts, which are very interesting, are at the libraries of Vienna, Naples, and Michigan.

Oenopides was born in Chios at around 500 BC. He lived in Athens where he became an astronomer and a mathematician.

Astronomy

Oenopides’s main accomplishment was the measurement of the angle between the plane of the celestial equator and the zodiac. He found that this angle was 24 degrees. Two centuries later Eratosthenes measured it better. In addition, Oenopides determined the duration of the Great Year to be about 59 years. This hepled to predict eclispes.

Geometry

He pointed out the difference between theorems and problems. The theorem serves for the development of a throery, while a problem is a theorem without development.

Furthermore, Oenopides said that for geometric constructions only the ruler (straighthedge) and the compass should be used.

Galenus was born in Pergamos in 129 AD and died in Rome in 199 AD. He was a very good doctor. He was the second best doctor after Hippocrates. he was a doctor of pathology, hygiene, surgery, and pharmacology.

Galenus invented a new medical practice which was used all around the Mediterranean Sea for a long time. He also found out that blood moves through arteries. Before this discovery, people believed that air moved through arteries!

Eudoxus of Cnidus was born in 404 BC and died in 335 BC. He was a Greek astronomer, geometrist and mathematician. He went to the university of Tarentum and to the academy of Platon in Athens. For many years he lived in Egypt. He is one of the biggest mathematicians of Ancient Greece. He claimed that the world and the space were made from fire!

As you will see in the picture below, a crater on the moon has got its name from this great Ancient Greek scientist!

Soranus of Ephesus was an ancient Greek physician. He lived in Rome. He was the most important representative of ancient medicine.

Soranus was the son of Meander and Phoebe. He studied at Ephesus and Alexandria. He worked in Rome during the time of Emperors Trajan and Hadrian.

He belonged to the methodical school and wrote medical and other writings. These writings dealt with gynaecological diseases. He gave emphasis to anatomy. He also wrote a biography of Hippocrates and a dictionary of the parts of the body.

Hippocrates (Kos 460 B.C. – Larissa 377 B.C.) was an ancient Greek physician and one of the most important persons in the history of medicine.

Hippocrates introduced rational medicine away from metaphysical elements, superstitions , prejudices, and the demonology of his time. He managed to match science based on the man with the art of medicine and the philosophical reflection. Hippocrates practised medicine based on humanistic and ethical values, successfully.

His work affected many modern medical specialities and so Hippocrates is today considered the father of medicine.

Finally, he promoted the systematic study of clinical medicine, and he wrote instructions for doctors in his Corpus Hippocraticum.

A 12th-century Byzantine manuscript of the Oath in the form of a cross.

Detail of a 1532 woodcut showing Herophilus (left) and Erasistratus

Herophilus of Chalcedon (331-280 B.C.) was a Greek doctor. He was born in Chalcedon in Asia Minor in 331 B.C. and he flourished in Alexandria in 300 B.C.

Along with Erasistratus he is regarded as the founder of the great medical school of Alexandria. He was an excellent pathologist, pharmacologist, gynaecologist, obstetrician, and, probably, surgeon.

He studied the brain, recognising the centre of the nervous system as the seat of the mind. He also studied the nervous system over and over again distinguishing the nerves from the blood vessels and the motor ones from the sensory nerves. But education of the anatomical studies includes the eye, liver, pancreas and the digestive system, the salivary glands, and the reproductive system.

Heraclides of Tarentum was a Greek ancient army doctor of the first century B.C.

He belonged to the Empiric school and he wrote seven books. He worked in various areas of medicine, such as pathology, opthalmology, and surgery. He also experimented with making poisons such as poison hemlock, henbane, etc.

Panayiotis Kanelakopoulos, Grade 2, 2nd Junior High School of Paralia.

Seleucus of Seleucia was a great ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer. He solved many astronomical problems of his time, mainly the earth’s rotation around its axis and around the sun (heliocentric system or model).

Seleucus of Seleucia is the first who discovered the relationship between the phenomenon of tides and the movement of the moon. More specifically, he observed the tides in the Red Sea for a long time and he revealed their relationship with the different positions of the moon in the zodiac cycle.

Also he explained the phenomenon of the annual flood as the reason for the resistance of the moon to the next rotation of the atmosphere. This certainly does not seem to happen, but at least he was the first to distinguish the inequality in the rotational speed of the earth’s atmosphere.

Menaechmus was an important geometer of Ancient Greece in the 4th century BC. He was the teacher of Alexander the Great in Mathematics. He was considered the first who discovered and singled out the three types of conic sections:

She is mentioned in the writings of historians’ as the daughter of Hegetor of Thessaly. People believed she was a witch because she had the ability to make the moon disappear from the sky. People also believed that because of her ability she could predict the exact time and area where a lunar eclipse would occur.

Did you know that a crater on the moon has got its name from Aglaonike?

Aristarhos was born in 310 BC and died in 230 BC. He was a Greek astronomer and a Maths teacher. He was born in Samos.

He suggested that the sun was the centre of the solar system. Originally, his ideas about astronomy were not accepted. He observed the movement of the moon and claimed that the diameter of the Earth was three times bigger than the diameter of the moon. He reached the conclusion that the sun had a diameter twenty times bigger than that of the moon and that the sun is bigger than the Earth.

In the picture above you can see “Aristarhos”, the second biggest telescope in Europe named after this great Greek astronomer, and which is on the mountain in Kalavryta, a town about 80 kms away from Patra.

I’m a student from 2nd Junior High School of Paralia and I’d like to talk to you about a very important scientist who lived in Ancient Greece. His name was Eratosthenes of Cyrene and he really achieved great things!

Eratosthenes of Cyrene was a great mathematician, geographer and astronomer. He was born in Cyrene in 276 BC and died in the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt in 195 BC. Eratosthenes studied in Alexandria and it was believed that he had also studied in Athens for some years.

Eratosthenes was the first person that calculated the circumference of the Earth and he also invented a system of latitude and longitude. He made a map of the known world, as well. Below you can see a reconstruction of his map in the 19th century.

He made a lot of important contributions to mathematics and science and he was a good friend of the great physist and mathematician Archimedes (the person who first shouted “Eureka!”, remember?).

Around 255 BC he invented the armillary sphere and he also found the distance to the sun and the moon. Below you can see a diagram of what an armillary sphere looks like.

As you can understand, Eratosthenes was a very successful man in almost every field of science.

In my opinion, he is a bright example of a person that worked hard and helped the world become a better place!